The Finance Ministry presented the draft budget law on Monday and opened it for public comments, ahead of the next Knesset session. This bill, which specifies the allocation of funds, usually precedes the adoption of the budget shortly.
Public comments on this enormous bill, which is more than 240 pages long, will be possible until Sunday.
At the start of the month, the Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, presented an initial budgetary framework for 2025, backed by a deficit objective of up to 4% of gross domestic product.
Receive our daily edition for free by email so you don’t miss the best news. Free registration!
To counterbalance the increase in civil and military spending linked to the war, the government will have to make significant budget cuts in spending and adjust taxation with the aim of increasing tax revenues and facing a budget deficit. which, in 2025, should be around 30 to 40 billion shekels.
The finance bill published this Monday provides for a number of measures intended to address this challenge, starting with the freezing of increases in the minimum wage, salary increases for senior civil servants and benefits paid by the National Institute insurance for victims of terrorism and survivors of the Shoah.
It also provides for the freezing or even elimination of retirement savings benefits and advanced study funds, in order to limit the significant budget deficit and finance the fights against the terrorist organizations of Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Furthermore, the bill suggests negotiating with the Central Bank of Israel on the issue of bank profits tax, additional taxes on capital gains and real estate and the cancellation of tax exemptions for cigarettes excluding taxes. In addition, certain diplomatic missions could be closed and the port of Ashdod privatized.
If adopted, this law would have the effect of raising the amount of compulsory contributions for health insurance and the National Insurance Institute to a minimum of 127 and 223 shekels respectively.
Yisrael Beytenu MK Oded Forer responded to the bill by writing on ultra-Orthodox parties and refusing to finance the priorities of the coalition parties.
“Bibi prefers to have a fat government and a hungry population,” he concluded.
You are one of our loyal readers
We are glad you read X articles from Times of Israël last month.
This is why we created the Times of Israeleleven years ago (nine years for the French version): offering informed readers like you unique information on Israel and the Jewish world.
Today we have a favor to ask you. Unlike other media outlets, our website is accessible to everyone. But the journalism work we do comes at a price, so we ask readers who care about our work to support us by joining the ToI community.
With the amount of your choice, you can help us provide quality journalism while benefiting from reading the Times of Israël without advertisements.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, editor-in-chief and founder of The Times of Israel
Join the Times of Israel community Join the Times of Israel community Already a member? Log in to no longer see this message
